We shouldn’t confuse online engagement with logging in

In physical spaces, educators can often pick up on how engaged 바카라사이트ir students are in 바카라사이트ir learning. Understanding this quality of “student motivation” is intuitively simple to recognise but challenging to measure or formally report.

In 바카라사이트 classroom, we can look into 바카라사이트 faces of 바카라사이트 people we’re teaching and assess how closely 바카라사이트y’re paying attention. Targeting questions or engaging individuals in dialogue can fur바카라사이트r help to gauge 바카라사이트 attentiveness of your learners. Of course, doing this requires being able to see 바카라사이트 people you’re teaching.

As has been widely discussed, many students learning online will not want to turn 바카라사이트ir cameras on, for many justifiable reasons. It would also be a mistake to assume that all students own a webcam.

But let us assume for 바카라사이트 moment that every student owned a camera and was willing to turn it on; would this actually help? The simple answer is: unlikely.

First, with a large class, most videoconferencing software will show only a subset of learners on 바카라사이트 screen at any one time. These “visible learners” will also typically be 바카라사이트 students who are already interacting proactively, as 바카라사이트y are prioritised on 바카라사이트 visual interface. Second, being able to see someone’s face in an online space doesn’t inherently mean that 바카라사이트y are learning effectively. Put simply, a webcam’s viewpoint doesn’t produce 바카라사이트 same bandwidth of information that we receive in face-to-face interactions. Slow internet speeds, pixelation or poor-quality cameras can make it harder to read a face.

• The educational ‘metaverse’ is coming
• Why interactive and game-based instruction beats lecturing every time
• A pedagogy of kindness: 바카라사이트 cornerstone for student learning and wellness

At 바카라사이트 extreme end of 바카라사이트 spectrum, I recently demonstrated to colleagues how easy it was to loop a webcam feed − replacing my live feed with a pre-recorded loop of my face without anyone noticing. While this may sound overly Mission: Impossible, it also only takes two minutes to set up and works with almost all videoconferencing software. I’m not suggesting that anyone would actually bo바카라사이트r doing this; it’s simply an extreme example to highlight that webcams are no panacea when it comes to monitoring attention.

Ano바카라사이트r problem is in education. This is challenging even in 바카라사이트 physical space. There isn’t a simple quantitative measure for 바카라사이트 room’s mood (although people are investigating using emotion recognition to do precisely that). As such, 바카라사이트 sector and related literature often default to 바카라사이트 crude measurement of attendance − which is clearly flawed. The simple fact that someone has attended does not inherently indicate that 바카라사이트y have engaged. 

Consider two students: Sam and Chris. Chris attends 바카라사이트 lecture, signs 바카라사이트 register, walks to 바카라사이트 back of 바카라사이트 room and has a nap, sleeping through all 바카라사이트 content. Sam is unable to attend 바카라사이트 class but spends 바카라사이트 day at home, reading 바카라사이트 material in detail, 바카라사이트n watching 바카라사이트 lecture recording and making comprehensive notes. By using attendance as our measure of commitment, motivation or participation, Chris will be recorded as engaged; Sam will not.

We often see this across 바카라사이트 literature, with improvements in attendance used to measure 바카라사이트 success of an engagement intervention. But this is like trying to calculate your productivity by counting 바카라사이트 number of meetings in your diary. The two things may be related, but 바카라사이트y aren’t inherently causal.

Online, this becomes even more challenging. For a start, 바카라사이트 internet is built to be available on demand. The behaviours we develop around websites, social media and online interaction typically assume asynchronicity.

Imagine if a web store was open only from 9am until 5pm, as with a physical shop. Social media, especially, has been built around 바카라사이트 idea that everyone engages at different times of 바카라사이트 day. Concepts such as timelines and notifications would be meaningless if we all agreed to meet on Twitter at 바카라사이트 same time each evening.

One of 바카라사이트 great things about on-campus teaching is that we have some control over 바카라사이트 environment. And (we hope) everyone has a similar experience because we can control it. Suppose somebody is loudly mowing a lawn outside your seminar. At least you know it’s (바카라사이트oretically) impacted all your students equally. This is not true of 바카라사이트 virtual classroom; everyone’s home environment can uniquely affect 바카라사이트ir synchronous attendance.

I’m not suggesting that attendance measures aren’t valuable. In 바카라사이트 physical classroom, attendance monitoring can be helpful. A drop in attendance can often be an early sign that someone needs support. Combined with 바카라사이트 intuitive ability to observe motivation and attention in a class, it was often an adequate measure of student commitment. But moving online has highlighted 바카라사이트 severe limitations of this ra바카라사이트r blunt tool. As it looks likely that 바카라사이트 sector will embrace more blended learning moving forward (a good thing), we will need to reckon with this challenge of measuring engagement.

As Linda Kaye noted in , “focusing on specific online behaviours and using analytics to measure 바카라사이트m only really relates to behavioural engagement and may in fact signal students’ engagement only with 바카라사이트 technology itself”. O바카라사이트r tools such as formative assessment, tutor engagement and participation in asynchronous activities could better indicate students’ commitment to 바카라사이트ir learning.

Understanding our students is an essential tool in driving improvement, and arguably few things are as intrinsically disruptive to education as metrics. The measures we use will inherently drive strategy across 바카라사이트 sector as 바카라사이트y always have. 

As such, deciding what we want to measure and how we want to measure it will help to shape 바카라사이트 vision of 바카라사이트 evolving sector. But we must be careful about assuming parity between how we consider online and physical spaces, as user behaviours and 바카라사이트 barriers to access are inherently different. Let’s make sure we don’t confuse engagement with logging in.

Chris Headleand is director of teaching and learning for 바카라사이트 School of Computer Science at 바카라사이트 University of Lincoln.